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In the 1660s, King Charles II decreed that men at court were to wear a long coat or a jacket and a cravat – which would become the modern necktie. The entire ensemble would eventually become the standard business suit that we men wear virtually everyday of our lives.

By the early 1800s, styles had changed enough that the trend led men to wear understated, beautifully cut, perfectly tailored coats, along with elaborately knotted neckwear. What we call the modern suit was originally a nineteenth-century English innovation. The tailored man’s suit became the great social leveler of the 19th century. With the breakdown of the aristocratic leadership that had dominated society since time immemorial, it became less necessary for men to emphasize distinctions of social rank. As the suit became increasingly popular, even the humblest men would have at least one suit to wear on Sunday to church as part of their “Sunday best.”

America took the lead in the 20th century with the ready-to-wear industry, devising technological advances that created a reliable source of clothing for all men. Tailors worked on standardized master patterns, a technique borrowed from the United States Army, and the proliferating department stores disseminated suits of a fairly uniform nature.

The Zoot Suit first gained popularity in the late 1930s in Harlem among the jazz community The word “zoot” comes from the word ’suit’. Anti-Latino race riots, the Zoot Suit Riots, racked Los Angeles during World War II. Despite restrictions and discrimination, Zoot Suit culture prevailed.

Over the past half-century, the wearing of suits has become far less common than it once was and is now restricted almost entirely to formal and business activities. During the 1990s, many businesses in North America adopted casual Fridays. The abandonment of a uniform dress code has led to considerable confusion over what is considered appropriate business wear. More recently, some businesses have reinforced the wearing of suits, although they may never again be as common as they once were.

So, if you’re one of those guys who bucks the trend and continues to wear a suit and a silk tie everyday of your life – take a bow. You are helping to keep history alive.

Technorati Tags: history of suits, mens suits, suit coats

Tags: history of suits, mens suits, suit coats

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 21st, 2007 at 4:35 am and is filed under Suits, mens suits. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.